Door-operating mechanism.



L. JACKSON.

DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 12, 1916.

Patented Sept. 12

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

m: mmms rsrsns rc.. rnnmurna. wasnmu nm. u. c.

L. JACKSON.

DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM.

APPLlcAloN FILED MAY12.1916.

Patented Sept. 12, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

LOUIS JACKSON, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

DOOR-OPERATING MECHANISIVL Specicaton of Letters Patent. Patentd Septnjl, 1916.

Application filed May 12, 1916. Serial No. 97,209.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that l, LoUIs JACKSON, citizen of the United States, and resident of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Door-Operating Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to door opening mechanisms adapted for use in connection with sliding doors such as maybe used in elevators, garages, factories, warehouses and other 'places requiring relatively large door openingswhich must be closed by quick and easy operating doors.

The object of the invention is to provide a mechanism for opening and closing sliding doors, whereby the same may be 0perated with very little effort by the operator.

Another object is to provide a door operating mechanism adapted to be manufactured at a relatively low cost and installed without requiring much space and machinery.

Other objects will appear as this specification proceeds.

Accordingly my invention comprises a mechanism for operating sliding doors constructed and arranged as hereinafter described and claimed and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which* Figure l is a view in elevation of a door operating mechanism lembodying my invention, showing the doors closed. Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof. Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1 but showing the doors opened. Fig. 4 is a plan view of Fig. 3 and Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view of some of the operating parts taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

The door opening is indicated by the lines 10 in Figs. 1 and 3, and 11 is the floor line. In the particular instance illustrated the door opening is closed by sliding doors comprising the three door sections'12, 13 and 14 which may be provided with bent over flanges 15 to close the space between ythe door sections as will' be understood to prevent accidents. While three door sections are illustrated it is clear that the invention is applicable to any other number of door sections more than two in number. 16 represents lugs at the bottom of the door sections to guide themgrooves 17 in the -floor.

18vand 19 represent brackets or supports for the operating mechanism and which maybe secured to the wall in any suitable manner, the wall being represented at 20. Between the brackets and secured thereto are three door beams of different lengths marked 21 22 and 23. The right hand ends of the door beams are secured to thebracket 19. The left hand ends of the beams 21 and 22 are supported at 24 and 25 respectively, while the beam 25 extends clear across between the brackets.

The door section 12 is suspended by hangers 26 from a suspension bar 27 which rests upon a floating ball bearing comprising the ball holding member 28 containing the balls 29 which in turn rest upon the door beam 21. The right hand end of the ball bearing is clearly seen in Fig. 1, while the left hand end is seen in Fig. 2 where it is marked 30. The suspension bar 27 carries a gear bracket 31 in which is mounted a gear 32 which meshes with a stationary rack 33 supported at 34, s4.

35 is another rack which meshes with the gear 32 underneath the latter. This rack is secured by a bracket 36 to a suspension bar 37 from which the door section 13 is hung. Suspension bar 37 rests upon a ball bearing 38-39 similar to the ball bearing 28-29 aforesaid. The ball bearing 38-39 rides upon the door beam 22.

The suspension bar 37 carries a gear bracket 40 in which is mounted a gear 41 which meshes with an upper rack 42 which is carried by two brackets 43, 43 secured to the suspension bar 27.

. 45 is still another rack which meshes with the gear 41 underneath the latter. This rack is secured by a bracket 46 to a third suspension bar 47 from which the door section 14 is suspended. Suspension bar 47 rests upon a ball bearing 48-49 similar to the ball bearings aforesaid. The ball bearing 48-49 4rides upon the door beam 23.

50 is a suitably mounted shaft to which are secured two levers 51 and 52 spaced apart to permit the door section 14 to pass between them as in Fig. 3.

53 is an operating arm pivoted at 54 and connected to the lever 51 by a link 55. 56 and 57 are handles.

' 58 is a stop on the link 55 adapted to be engaged yby ja notch 59 in the arm 53.

The lever 52 is provided with a slot` 60 which engages a pin 61 secured to' the door section 13. The outer end of the slot is olf set as at 62, which olf set drops in over the pin 61 to lock the latter' in the eXtreme positions of the lever 52. The parts are so arranged that when the door is closed as in.

Fig. l, the operating arm 53 and the link 55 are on a dead center to prevent accidental opening of the door.

When it is desired to open the door, the operator takes the handle .56 and moves it to the right, breaking the dead center position referred to and through the link 55 and lever 51 the shaft 50 isrocked to the right, which causes the lever 52 to move to the right also taking the door section 13 with it.

The moving of the door section 13 also moves the suspension bar 37 secured thereto, hence also moves the gear bracket 40 andthe gear 41 begins to revolve, traveling on the upper rack 42. The turning of the gear 41, however, compels a movement to the right of the rack 45 which also carries with it, through the bracketk 46, the suspension bar 47 and the door section 14.

When the door section 13 commences to move, it takes with it the lower rack 35 secured to the suspension bar 37. The movement of the 'rack 35 rotates the gear 32 which travels upon the upper rack 33, and the gear 32, being mounted in the gear bracket 31 fast to the "suspension bar 27, causes the latter to travel to the right taking the door section 12 along. The rack 42 is se'euredto the suspension bar 27 by the brackets 43 which thus also 'cause the rack 42 to move to the right, the parts being sodesigned, that on the opening movement the door sections arrive at the same time in the position shown in Fig. 3 and vice versa when closing. The door sections are stopped in the position shown in Fig. 3 by the stop 53 abutting the operating arm 53 as shown.

The operation may be summarized 'as follows: Door section 13 is moved by the lever 52. Thus gear 41 is moved to the right which transmits power to the lower rack 45, moving it to the right with the door section 14. The rack 35 moving with the door section 13 transmits power to the gear 32 which travels on Vrack 33 and thereby moves the door section 12. In addition, the gear 42 is moved to the right by door section 12 to avoid having a long stationary rack at that point.

From the foregoing it will be seen that each door sectionv is suspended from its own suspension bar which rests upon its own lioating ball bearing, which in turn rides uponits own door beam. The ball bearings are alike, but of different lengths according to the length of Vtheir travels. They are provided with stops and feet 76 to keep the ball holding member from the door beam, while the stops 75 serve the purpose of preventing theball bearings from running away from the suspension bars.

The mechanism consists largely of duplicate' parts and works very freely due to the floating ball bearings which take all the weight of the door sections. The various movable racks are guided in the gear brackets as shown in Fig. 5. Vhen it is desired to close the door, the operator moves the handle 57 to the left in Fig. 2, whereby all the movable parts will move in the opposite direction to that described above and the door sections close.

I claim:-

' 1. A plurality of parallel supporting door beams, an equal number of door sections, mechanism for supporting the said door sections side by side on the said beams, means for manually operating one of said door sections comprising a rock shaft, a pair of levers secured thereto, a pin and slot connection between one of the said levers and the said one door section, a link pivoted to the other of said levers, an operating arm for actuating the said link to slidably operate the said one. door section upon its supporting door beam and means for transmitting the motion from the said operated door section to the adjacent door sections.

2. A plurality of parallel supporting members, an equal number of door sections, mechanism for supporting the said door sections on said supporting members, one door section on each of the latter, said mechanismcomprising for each door section a suspension bar, a floating ball bearing interposed between the latter and the said supporting member, hangers for securing the door sections to the suspension bars, means for manually operating one of said door sections comprising a rock shaft, a pair of levers secured thereto, a pin and slot connection between one of said levers and the said one door section, a link pivoted to the other of said levers, an operating arm for actuating the said link to slidably operate the said one door section upon its supporting door beam and means for automatically transmitting the motion of the said operated door section to the adjacent door sections on both sides thereof whereby to simultaneously open and close the said door sections.

3. A plurality of supports, a fioating ball bearing on each of said supports, a door suspension bar resting upon each of said {loating ball bearings, a door section suspended from each suspension bar, said door sections being arranged side by side in different planes, mechanism for 'simultaneously operating said door sections and suspension bars to slide upon the said floating ball bearings to simultaneously open and close the door sections, said mechanism comprising a gear and a lirst rack mounted upon one of said suspension bars, a second rack on one of the adjacent suspension bars and in mesh with the said gear, a second gear on the other of the adjacent suspension bars and in mesh with the said iirst rack, said two racks being n mesh with the said gears below the latter, other racks meshing with the said two gears above the latter and upon which other racks the said two gears travel and means for manually operating one of 10 the said door sections and its suspension bar.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 10th day of May, A. D. 1916.

LOUIS JACKSON.

' Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

